Excel and Join the Top 1% of the World
through a Commitment to Excellence

By Joey Smith

Want to shatter the myth that excellence is unachievable?  Join me in becoming one of the elite few in taking your life and career to a new level by understanding your birthright and championship DNA.  Hype?  Think again.  Read further to discover your potential and your destiny if you choose to accept it.

Excellence is truly the difference maker in good managers and mediocre ones.  The difference is the commitment level and understanding of excellence.  We all know what commitment is.  When we think of commitment, we think of relationships, friendships, marriage, work, etc.  Commitment is the state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to someone or some thing (i.e. Person, Passion or Purpose).  In our case, it is excellence that we are striving to be emotionally and intellectually bound to.  We are in essence creating a contract or a binding obligation with “excellence”.  Mark McCormack once said "Commit yourself to excellence from day one ... it's better to do nothing at all than to do something badly."

In order to understand the commitment, you must first know the subject.  In my mind, the subject of excellence is synonymous with the enemy of good, winning, surpassing, superior, zero defects, extraordinary, greatness etc.  These things go beyond the status quo.  They are above and beyond.  They are not the norm.  Does this describe your organization or department?  Warren G. Bennis once said, “Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary.”  As it relates to business, the only reason why customers would want to buy anything is directly related to the company’s level of excellence.  In order to achieve legendary status businesses have to be superb at what they do.  No question about it.  Have you ever heard someone say “hey, let’s go get an okay steak”, or “let’s go to a mediocre party”.  You don’t and won’t.  People expect excellence.  They don’t always get it, but you will learn how to acquire it and provide it continually to set yourself apart.

Excellence is also ongoing.  It is not a position or place or achievement.  You do not arrive at excellence.  It is not a destination.  If you want your customer to say they were very satisfied, you have to be willing and determined to raise your standards and be better today than you were yesterday.  Excelling is an ongoing process that never ends.  Tom Peters a renowned business philosopher said that “Excellent firms don't believe in excellence -- only in constant improvement and constant change.”  He also went on to say “If it isn’t broke, you just haven't looked hard enough.  Fix it anyway.”

By now, you understand what excellence is and that it is not a fixed achievement.  So how is this accomplished?  This is where the rubber meets the road.  You truly need a paradigm shift.  Excellence is something that just clicks.  It is like a light bulb that goes on when one day you understand what it truly means.  It is one of those elusive nouns that you know it when you see it.  It is kind of like beauty.  In some cases you can use a thousand words to describe it, but it would also be hard to describe to a blind man.  Those who could see would understand.  The same is true for excellence.  Catch this: (Don’t miss this as this is the most important part of the entire article) Your eyes and ears have to be WIDE open to catch excellence.  Excellence can only be achieved when you are present and focused.  When I say present, I mean being actively engaged in the moment.  Have you ever played a sport, won, but wasn’t sure why?  What about winning and knowing it was in the bag?  What was the difference?  Your eyes were “WIDE” open. (Figuratively)  You were confident because you were focused and present.

Even while you are reading this article, your mind is processing a million things.  You are focused on what you have going today, what your schedule looks like, who you are going to eat lunch with, what happens tonight when you get home.  Am I right?  Admit it.  How many of you have thought about these things and more while reading this article?  Maybe some of you said to yourself, who is this guy, or should I finish reading this etc.  It is said that most workers are only 20% productive throughout the entire day.  This is true, because we are continually distracted by our environment, beliefs, passions, desires, pains, etc.  Yoga and other forms of martial arts was formed to capture present focus and to free the mind of distraction.  Pain sometimes was used to pull the mind back to the present.  For instance, face slapping and spanking whether you agree with it or not were or are used to pull present focus.  You see what the behavior pattern is, spank to get the mind back to the present, and then correct. As it pertains to Yoga, certain poses were created to keep the mind focused on the present.  This is called heightened awareness or meditation.  This works.  If you don’t believe me, slap yourself in the face when falling asleep while trying to stay awake, and you will focus real quick.

Thomas J. Watson said “if you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”  It is clearly that simple.  It really doesn’t get simpler than that.  It is almost like believing in something that you can’t see, touch or feel.  You have to believe in order to make it happen.  You have to be targeted and focused.  There are several components to this focus.  You have to see it to understand it and you have to believe it in order to produce or reproduce it.

Without getting too esoteric or mysterious, let me share with you a true story that that gives clarity to my point.  When I was a kid, my sister continually called me stupid.  That was her pet nickname for me.  As cruel as this sounds, she lovingly called me this because she wanted deep down to corner the market in our family in the smarts department.  She was the straight “A” student and wanted to be a teacher when she got older.  As a matter of fact, she is a teacher today.  This was her call sign.  She was the smart one.  I eagerly grabbed the “stupid” title and went about my life achieving mediocre results in school.  After all, I believed what I was continually told.  I knew I wasn’t as smart as my sister, so I decided to focus on other things like music. 

Long story short, since my sister and I were just two years apart in age, we ended up going to college together.  One day, my sister challenged me to an IQ test being sponsored by the Geniuses Club and I reluctantly agreed.  To my surprise, the test results came back with my score being the highest.  As a matter of fact, my score was 20 points higher than my sister’s, and here I was a “C” student at best.  This was the catalyst that changed my life, career and total paradigm forever.  Immediately I felt intelligent.  Immediately I felt like I was ripped off my entire life.  I was so excited.  The next day, I instantly applied myself differently than ever before and found that I could make “A’s” in any subject.  My teachers were amazed.  I made it a point to surpass my sister’s scores in everything and to not only achieve “A’s”, but achieve perfect and higher than perfect scores.  I dropped out of music and took up the majors: philosophy and psychology.  Imagine that for an awakening!

Once that clicked, it was like being let out of prison.  The lid was immediately lifted.  Why I wondered?  There was nothing different about me the day before the test.  I was the same person with the same mind.  I looked the same, acted the same, had the same friends, but, my grades instantly improved.  I went from mediocre minded to excellence minded.  As a matter of fact, I become the reason why curves weren’t issued to the rest of the class.  I would strive for 100 then do the bonus questions.  My grades shot up to 106, 112 averages.  It became fun.  I became known as the geek or nerd.  I was mighty proud of that title.  It was at least better than stupid.  However to everyone’s disbelief, I was still physically the same person as before the IQ test.

For the first time in my life, I was the teacher’s favorite.  Not in just one or two subjects.  Sure, everyone has their best classes.  No, this carried over to math, accounting, computers, philosophy, psychology, history, and economics.  All subjects were 100+ %.  How could that be?  I was supposed to be a poorly paid musician, not a geek like my sister.  I used to chuckle to myself and say, “This is what it meant to give a 110%”.  How could I apply this to every aspect of my life I wondered?  My music even got drastically better.

What is the difference maker for you?  Has it clicked for you yet?  If I could communicate anything to you today, just know that excellence is in you by design.  You already have it.  I wasn’t any different before and after the test biologically, but knowing who I was opened the lock to unlimited potential.  The potential is that you are human and excellence is in your DNA.  I believe, and some would like to argue with me on this point and I have debated it many times that everyone is capable of 110% on every subject.  Sure, there are going to be some things easier than others, but the difference maker is your ability to be present and to be focused with your “eyes wide open.”  In order to be present, your attitude has to change.  You have to want it and believe it.  I guess that is why it is said that attitude determines altitude and ultimately determines excellence.

What is your attitude towards excellence?  Are you the best in your current capacity?  If not, you could be.  It is all about a commitment, an understanding and a belief.  Excellence is with you now.  You have it.  You were born with it.  It is not something you learn, although you see it and experience it everyday.  It is so innate you recognize it when you see it.  So just do it and you, your business and your department will never be the same.  Insist on excellence with all of your suppliers, vendors, managers, employees etc.  It is inherently in each and every one of them.  It is limiting beliefs that are keeping it from them and from you.  What do you believe about yourself?  Are you capable of being the best in your field?  Analyze and examine all of the limiting beliefs, because they are holding you back from acquiring excellence.  Once you break down these barriers,   exemplify excellence and practice it daily through concentrated effort.  This truly will set you apart and elevate you to the top 10% of your peers.

Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”  Will you commit to a habit of excellence today and join the top?

Joey Smith is the CIO, Founder and Executive Coach of HigherHill, Inc. Joey is also the only two-time finalist for the prestigious Georgia CIO of the Year Award and two-time winner for the Microsoft Project of the Year. For more of Joey's IT management insight, tips and tricks take a look at his Ezine entitled IT Octane! http://www.itoctane.com/

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